Remus' Secret
by Charity Angel
Summary: MWPP. How will his friends react to Remus' biggest secret? Begins during their Second Year, will continue through to the First Order of the Phoenix and November 1981. Rated for bad language - boys will be boys. JP/LE SB/RL (yes, that means slash)
1. Chapter 1: Moony

_Bit nervous – this is my first Harry Potter fic. It therefore goes without saying that I am not JKR, and do not own any of the Marauders, Lily or anyone else mentioned (except Siobhan – she's mine). Apologies – this is not beta-read, so mistakes are entirely my own doing._

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**Chapter 1: Moony**

"Sirius?"

Sirius Black looked up from his Charms homework. "What?"

James Potter pointed out of the open window of their dormitory. "It's full moon."

That caught Sirius' attention. "And Remus has disappeared again. It's too much of a coincidence."

"We have to ask him."

"Oh yeah?" Sirius said. "And just how are we going to do that, Jimmy? 'Hey, Remus, how're things? By the way, we were wondering, are you a werewolf?'"

"Don't call me 'Jimmy'!" James protested, firing a poorly-aimed hex at Sirius and setting fire to the hangings of his bed. "Oh, shit. Um, help?"

"_Finite incantem_," Sirius said, lazily flicking his wand. Nothing happened. "Shit, James, what the hell did you do?"

"I dunno," James cried, yanking the door open and shouting down the stairs. "It was just something I wanted to try out on Snivelly next time we curse him."

The seventh-year Prewitt twins were the first to answer James' cry for help.

"What have you two been up to?" Fabian asked with a sigh as he conjured a stream of water from the tip of his wand and, working with his twin, put out the flames.

"Nothing," the pair said quickly.

"We were just trying out a new spell, and it went a bit wrong," Sirius elaborated as the prefect appeared unconvinced.

"No kidding," Gideon said, inspecting the damage done to the drapes. "_Evanesco_." The water disappeared from the floor, and, with a quick twiddle of wands, the twins soon had the carpet dry again, whilst Sirius tried a '_reparo'_ spell on the curtains.

"Won't work, Black," Fabian said. "You need all the pieces to repair something."

"Is there any way to repair them without McGonagall finding out?" James asked.

The twins exchanged glances. "Not exactly," Gideon said conspiratorially. "They can't be repaired, but they _can_ be replaced. You need to go down to the kitchens and ask the house elves."

The two Marauders' eyes lit up; going down to the kitchen sounded like breaking the rules, and that was something they excelled at.

"How do we get down there?" James asked.

Gideon looked to his brother.

"I won't stop you telling them," Fabian said, "but as a prefect, I can't have anything to do with this."

"He's gotten so boring since he got that badge," Gideon said with a wicked grin. "You know the corridor to the right of the main staircase in the entrance hall?"

The two boys nodded.

"Go along there until you come to the painting of a fruit bowl. All you need to do is tickle the pear, and it'll turn into a door handle. The kitchens are behind there."

"Wow, thanks, Gideon," Sirius said.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

"I can't believe how cool Fabian and Gideon Prewitt are," Sirius whispered as he and James snuck down to the kitchens. "Not grassing us up or anything. Peter's going to be so pissed off when he finds out what he missed."

"Sirius, concentrate," James said, deliberately stepping on Sirius' foot as they shuffled under his invisibility cloak. "What are we going to do about Remus?"

"What can we do?" Sirius countered. "Either he is or he isn't – it doesn't make a difference, does it? He's still Remus."

"Hell, Sirius, I thought for sure you'd have some Black family prejudice against werewolves."

"Maybe I don't want to see things the same way as my narrow-minded, blood-obsessed family?"

James had to concede the point. "I still think we need to get it out in the open. We pledged, remember? No secrets."

Sirius nodded.

Peter trudged wearily into the dormitory not long after James and Sirius returned.

"How was detention?" Sirius asked around a mouthful of chocolate cake.

"Horrible," Peter groaned, flopping onto his bed. "Slughorn made me clean out the newt-eye barrel. Those things burst, you know. What are you eating?"

"Treacle tart," James replied cheerfully, wafting its aroma towards Peter. "Want some?"

Peter looked sceptical. "What have you done to it?"

James appeared highly affronted. "Would I do anything to treacle tart?"

"Peter, he worships that stuff almost as much as he worships Evans," Sirius pointed out, offering a plate of cream scones. "It's these you want to watch out for."

Peter quickly withdrew his hand from the vicinity of the plate.

"He's kidding," James reassured him. "None of it is cursed. We swiped it from the kitchens. Gideon Prewitt told us how to get down there."

Reassured, Peter grabbed a scone and shoved it into his mouth. His eyes closed blissfully.

"By the way, thought we should tell you," Sirius said lazily, "Remus is missing again. It's full moon."

Peter made an unintelligible noise of confusion.

"He's a werewolf, Peter," James said, pointing his fork at the youngest Marauder.

Peter squealed in terror and almost choked on the scone. "What?" he choked out eventually.

"It's so obvious," Sirius said. "He 'goes home' every full moon to visit his 'sick mother'…"

"Stop drawing air-quotes," James said. "It's tacky."

"Whatever," Sirius drawled. "Anyway, why does he always come back looking worse than when he went? Why is it _always_ full moon? Why not go home at the weekend, when we don't have lessons? You know how studious he is. Plus, Mrs Lupin looks fine whenever we see her at Kings Cross."

Peter's eyes were like saucers. "He… You mean he's out there, right now, being a werewolf?"

James and Sirius nodded simultaneously.

"_Alone_?" Peter demanded.

The others exchanged glances. "Well, yeah," James said. "He's not exactly going to be the best company right now."

"That's terrible," Peter exclaimed angrily. "Poor Remus."

"Got to say, Peter, you're taking this better than we thought you would," Sirius said.

Peter shrugged. "Remus hasn't done anything to deserve something so horrible: he wouldn't hurt a fly!"

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

Tuesday dragged on into Wednesday, and the three Marauders made up for their missing partner by irritating the girls (and the teachers) more than usual. James spent the entirety of History of Magic flicking tiny balls of parchment at Lily Evans – an activity that Remus would normally have put a stop to quite quickly – and by the end of the period, Lily's face was virtually indistinguishable in colour from her red hair.

"Just because Remus is away, doesn't mean you have to act like toddlers!" she snapped at James when Professor Binns drifted away. "You're thirteen years old, Potter – why don't you act like it?"

"Ignore him," Siobhan Turner said, taking Lily's arm and blanking the Marauders as she turned away. "He's not worth your time."

Lily's agreement with this statement led to James spending the entire Potions lesson sulking, which seemed to please Severus Snape no end. The greasy Slytherin kept turning from the cauldron of perfect shrinking solution that he and Lily were brewing to shoot smugly triumphant glances at James. It was with a sense of profound relief that the trio went back to their dorm after class, grateful to be away from the Slytherins and Lily's sharp gaze. They had had time to relax and start a game of exploding snap by the time Remus came back, looking tired.

"Oh, hi, guys," he said, seemingly surprised to see them.

Sirius couldn't believe his ears when James used his exact words from two nights ago.

"Hey, Remus, how're things?"

"Um, okay, I guess," Remus said nervously, gathering his homework assignments.

"We were wondering," James said, conversationally, "are you a werewolf?"

Remus dropped his bottle of ink in shock. "W… What makes you think something like that?"

James sat up, dropping his cards on the floor (they exploded and singed the rug, but no-one seemed to notice). "Well, you keep disappearing at full moon." He started counting reasons on his fingers. "You don't come back for a couple of days afterwards, which suggests you need some time to get back to normal before you see us again; you never let us see you without your shirt, suggesting that you've got scars you don't want us to see, namely a great big werewolf bite; you go all weird just before full moon _and_ you've just gone nervous."

Remus wouldn't meet their eyes.

"You promised," Sirius said with a pout. "No secrets, remember?"

"I just wanted to be your friend," Remus said quietly. "I knew you'd hate me if you knew what I am."

"I don't hate you, Remus," Sirius said, moving to sit beside his friend. "James doesn't hate you. Peter doesn't hate you."

"Yeah," James agreed, bouncing across the bed to sit at Remus' other side, whilst Peter was still trying to coordinate his movements enough to get up. "So, you've got a little problem; no-one's perfect."

Remus looked from one to the other in utter bewilderment and tried his best to defy the tears that sprung to his eyes when he saw their acceptance.

"Hey," James said with a grin, "I know we're great, but we're not _that_ great."

Remus laughed despite himself. "You are," he insisted, wiping his eyes in embarrassment. "You don't know what it's like. I've wanted to tell you for ages, but I was so afraid. This is the first time in my life I've really had friends, and I didn't want to risk anything."

"Oh, come here, you big, soft idiot," Sirius said, grabbing Remus and tickling him – a favourite past-time of certain Marauders because Remus shrieked like a girl. He did not disappoint, and James and Peter joined in until they were all lying in one breathless, jumbled heap.

"No more secrets?" James asked, gasping for breath.

"No more secrets," Remus agreed with a smile.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

_So, how did it go? Click the button to tell me! Concrit will be treated with loving care. Flames will be laughed at._


	2. Chapter 2: The Plan

_A/N: Okay, I know this was going to be a one-shot, but I got a request and I couldn't resist. Specially since I already had bits written. Okay, lots of bits. They're just, well, bitty right now. I need to work on making them less bitty, but there are definite plans for both Sirius and Remus. I haven't quite got Peter figured out yet (i.e. not at all)._

_Yes, it's a shower scene. Read into it what you will._

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**Chapter 2: The Plan**

Remus bit his lip to try and prevent the cry of pain from escaping as the hot water stung all of his latest scratches. He wasn't entirely successful and, unfortunately, Sirius heard his muffled whimper.

"Remus? You okay?" the older boy called from the next stall.

"Yes," Remus called back, unconvincingly. "Yes, I'm fine."

"No you aren't," Sirius said. He had moved away from the shower end and towards the dividing wall of the two stalls. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

Remus shrugged, a movement which caused him more pain. "No," he gasped. "I'm really okay."

"Liar," Sirius said gently. "Can I see?"

Remus slumped in defeat. "If you must."

Sirius slunk into the stall. It wasn't the first time that Remus had seen him in the altogether – he and James quite often ran around the bathroom flicking wet towels at each other after Quidditch practice, laughing and wrestling in what Remus felt was a rather homo-erotic manner, but he had never let any of the others see him naked before, and he was rather self-conscious about his appearance.

"Remus, what happened?" Sirius asked, taking in the state of his friend, with fresh, red wounds covering old white scars.

"Full moon," Remus said bitterly.

"But… you're alone at full moon," Sirius said faintly. "You're _always_ alone."

"Yes."

"You did this to yourself?"

"Yes." Remus hissed as Sirius touched one of the fresh wounds gently.

"Sorry," Sirius mumbled bashfully. "Why?"

"The wolf likes to hunt," Remus said, turning his back to Sirius at the other boy's unspoken request and releasing the wash cloth. "It doesn't have any prey, so it hunts the only human it can find."

"You?"

"Got it in one." Remus relaxed a little as Sirius turned the temperature down a little, so that it wasn't quite so painful on his wounds. "Still, it's better than prowling around, biting anyone I can get my teeth into."

"No wonder most…" Sirius bit his lip to stop himself saying what he had been thinking and instead concentrated on washing around Remus' open scratches.

"'No wonder most' what, Sirius?" Remus asked. "I won't be offended."

"No wonder most werewolves just let themselves go wild," Sirius said sheepishly. "I mean, when the alternative is _this_…"

"And that's how the infection spreads," Remus said. "That's how werewolves get the reputation we have."

Sirius sighed. "Don't you worry, Moony: we know that you're far too bloody noble to do anything like that."

"Sirius!"

"Well you are," Sirius said with a grin as he finished cleaning Remus' back. "Do you want me to do the front too?"

Remus shook his head. "No, I'll be all right. Thank you."

Sirius gave him a shy smile. "Not a problem, Moony. Any time. You just yelp in pain again, and I'll come running. Or maybe you could just ask?"

Remus nodded. "Maybe I could."

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

"We have to do something," Sirius muttered under his breath as he pulled book after book from the library shelves. "We can't just sit around and let him do that to himself every month."

He hadn't dared go into the Restricted Section; he and James had done that for a laugh last year and nearly been caught by Filch when one of the books had screamed blue murder. This time, he wasn't taking any chances, and stuck to the regular sections of the library, pulling each book under the 'borrowed' Invisibility Cloak and reading only by the light of his wand to avoid detection. This was far too important to be caught.

It took him the best part of three weeks' worth of night-time excursions to get all the information he needed, but no-one seemed to have noticed - Sirius slept through lessons under normal circumstances, so nothing seemed amiss to his teachers or classmates.

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"Right, I've been looking into Remus' little problem," Sirius announced to the dorm at large, eyeing the full moon with a certain malice, now he knew what it was doing to his friend. "Apparently, werewolves are only dangerous to humans. They can't hurt other animals."

"I hate to break it to you, Sirius," James said, "but we're human."

Sirius gave him his best pranking grin. "Yeah, but what if we're not?"

James threw a pillow at him. "What are you taking? I want some."

"I'm serious," Sirius said, "and no puns this time, please. What if we became animals?"

"You mean, like Animagi?"

"Now you're getting it, Jamie," Sirius said. "Apparently, an Animagus was bitten once, when he was in his animal form, and he was okay afterwards."

Peter screwed his face up. "But that's really advanced transfiguration. We won't even do basic human transfiguration until sixth year."

"No reason we can't teach ourselves," Sirius pointed out, his eyes gleaming. "Think about it; we could hang out with Remus at the full moon, keep him company and he can't even hurt us. You sad it yourself, Peter: it's terrible that he has to go through this alone."

Peter still looked sceptical, but Sirius could see that James was hooked. "I like it, Sirius. We're both pretty good at Transfiguration, we can work this out and we can give you a hand as well, Peter. For Remus."

Peter considered it for quite some time. "For Remus," he said eventually.

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_A/N 2: Yes, it's only short, but since it's chapter 2 of a one-shot I thought you might let me off. The next one will be longer, and will also be a few years later. It's mostly written. Honest._


	3. Chapter 3: Fifth Year begins

_A/N – I cannot stop writing this! I'm supposed to be tucked up and being all fluey, as someone with flu should be. Instead, I'm writing (the laptop makes a lovely hot water bottle, though) ;-)_

_Yes, I am Scottish, but I haven't bleached my hair, aged, or suddenly had three kids overnight. I do not earn £5 a second (isn't that a great statistic? Heard it on the radio on Friday). I am still not JKR and never will be. I write purely for my own amusement, not for cash. I have none, therefore you would be wasting your time by suing me._

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**Chapter 3 – Fifth year, part 1**

"This is going to drive me mental," Sirius groaned into the kitchen table. "She's trying to set me up with every eligible pure-blood girl going, just because that little rat Regulus told her that I'd been seeing Hayley Travers."

"Who's she got you visiting this time?" James asked sympathetically.

"Jemima Goyle," he growled.

James shuddered. Jemima looked like a troll with hair, and had the intelligence to match.

"Your mother still believes that blood is the only thing that matters," Dorea Potter said with a sigh as she set a cup of tea down beside Sirius' elbow and went to inspect the mess the boy had made when he had tumbled out of the fireplace only minutes beforehand. "I can try and talk to her if you want, my dear, but I'm not sure how much she'll listen to me."

"She'll call you a hypocrite," Sirius sighed. "You made a respectable marriage, Aunt Dorea."

"Which is why she still pays me any attention at all," Mrs Potter said ruefully. "I'm sure that's the only reason she lets you stay here."

"It is."

"Does she know that Remus and Peter stay too?"

Sirius pulled a face. "Peter's not so bad – he's pure-blood too, even if the Pettigrews aren't the most respectable family, but Remus? As if I'd be stupid enough to tell her that! It's bad enough that I sleep in the same dormitory as him, in her opinion, what with him being a half-blood. He's not good enough for me, apparently."

"Just as well she doesn't…" James trailed off, remembering that his mother was in the room.

"Yes, I think that she might have something to say if she discovered that he is a werewolf," Mrs Potter said lightly.

"What? Mum?"

"Claire Lupin and I had a chat when Remus came to stay last summer," Mrs Potter told the two shocked boys. "She told me everything that I might need to know."

"It was just after the full moon," Sirius mused. "He was still bleeding from that one on his shoulder."

Mrs Potter shook her head sadly. "That poor boy – he wouldn't harm a fly. Such a shame. Anyway, Sirius, now that we've established that, I wanted to say that you can come here any time life at home is getting too much."

Sirius' face lit up. "Really?"

"Really. Think of this place as your own," Mrs Potter told him. "Let's face it; you and James might as well be brothers, the way you are with each other."

"Thanks, Aunt Dorea." Sirius planted a quick kiss on her cheek. "You're the best."

"Thank you, Sirius," Mrs Potter said with a smile. "Now, are you going to tea with the Goyles or not?"

Sirius thought about this for all of about a second. "Not," he said firmly. "No way am I getting set up with some weirdo freak, just because her blood is 'pure'."

"You're drawing air quotes again," James said lazily.

"Shut up, Jimmy," Sirius said, before turning back to his great-aunt. "I want to do what 'Dromeda did, and find a girl I actually care about, instead of one who my mother considers respectable. Well, 'Dromeda found a guy, not a girl, but you know what I mean."

"I know what you mean, Sirius dear," Mrs Potter assured him. "You want to marry for love."

Sirius looked startled. "Well, I'm not really thinking about the whole marriage thing right now," he established, panic-stricken. "If I find the right girl, then I might start worrying about all that stuff, but not right this second."

Mrs Potter smothered a smile. She did love getting him to babble: it showed that he was only human after all. "It'll all come together in the end, my dear. It _might_ not even be something to worry about when you find the right girl."

"I'll take your word for that, Aunt Dorea," Sirius said diplomatically. "Can I hide out here for a few hours, until Mum cools down?"

"What did I just say five minutes ago?"

"Just testing," Sirius assured her with a rakish grin. "You fancy playing a bit of Quidditch, Jamie?"

James snorted. "You're going to lose again," he said.

"You wish."

"Out!" Mrs Potter instructed sharply, waving the two boys out of her kitchen.

"So, how are things going with Hayley anyway?" James asked as they went to get a change of clothes for Sirius. Fortunately, they weren't all that different in size, and Sirius easily fit into James' spare Quidditch robes.

"Not that great," Sirius admitted. "She's a bit boring: all she does is talk about fashion. But, if anyone asks, we're very happy."

James nodded. Hayley was a pretty Muggle-born Hufflepuff girl from their year, and James was sure that Sirius had only continued their relationship this long because he knew it would make his mother apoplectic with rage. "You going to ditch her then?"

"Probably," Sirius said with a shrug, most of which was lost as he pulled James' robes on.

"At least you've had a girlfriend," James reassured him. "Evans still won't even look at me."

"Maybe because you still call her 'Evans'," Sirius suggested. "I could be wrong, but most girls like to be called by their first name by potential boyfriends."

"Why didn't I think of that?" James asked as he rummaged under his bed for his spare broomstick. "Oh, wait, I did. Here it is." He hauled the broom out and passed it to Sirius. "She still says no, even when I call her Lily."

Sirius shouldered the broom and started walking to the makeshift Quidditch pitch.

"Well, mate, that's just disastrous," he said. "Maybe she just plain doesn't like you?"

"Impossible," James decreed importantly. "How could she not be utterly in love with me, the hero of the Gryffindor Quidditch team? The most handsomest guy in school?"

"The one with the biggest head," Sirius pointed out. "Honestly, you're not exactly Mr Subtle, are you? Evans is the subtle type."

"I know not this word of which you speak," James said, managing to sound serious. "'Subtle'? What do you mean?"

"Pack it in, Jamie, and prepare to lose." Sirius snatched the Quaffle from James, mounted his broomstick and kicked off before James had realised what he'd done.

"OI! Get back here, you cheat!" he yelled, following his friend into the air.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

"Moony! Oi, Moony!" James called, leaning out of the window as far as he could and bellowing down the platform. "Get in here."

Remus appeared somewhat startled by all the noise, and looked a little edgy as he made his way to the train.

"Moony, why are you trying to haul your trunk?" Sirius asked, taking James' place as Remus battled with his luggage at the train door (they were in the next compartment). "You're a wizard and it's now term time. Use your wand."

Remus blushed. "I didn't think about that," he admitted. He pulled his wand out of his pocket and levitated the trunk onto the train and into the cabin.

"I… I can't stay," Remus said, very nervously, as soon as his trunk had been deposited in the rack.

"Why not?" Sirius demanded with narrowed eyes.

"Um… I… I've got to go to the Prefects' carriage and…"

"Moony, are you a prefect?" James asked, his eyes like saucers.

Remus nodded, and James and Sirius snorted with laughter. "Ha! Moony's a prefect!"

"Shit, Moony's a prefect," Sirius realised. "That means we can't be Marauders any more. He'll grass us up."

"No I won't," Remus protested. "I just have to patrol the corridors for a bit, make sure no-one's fighting, that kind of thing. I don't think it'll be for the whole journey. See you later."

He dashed off down the corridor before they could tease him any more about his (very clean, well polished) badge.

"Does that mean we can't go down to Slytherin and hex Snivelly?" James mused.

The door opened again.

"I thought we were never going to get here," Peter groaned, flopping down on the seat, taking up enough space for at least three people. "My bloody sister insisted on taking an hour to get ready. An hour! And she didn't look any different."

Peter's seventh-year sister had the same colouring as her brother, but whereas Peter looked somewhat like a scarecrow, Emilie was a goddess (in the humble opinions of the vast majority of the male population of Hogwarts). She was tall, blonde and slender. Not so very bright that she had made it into Ravenclaw, but none of the males surrounding her seemed to care all that much.

"Why is she even bothering, now that her boyfriend's graduated?" Peter groaned.

"She's still with him?"

"Yes," Peter groaned. "All summer, it was Gilderoy this and Gilderoy that. And of course, he's been hanging around like a bad smell, too."

"Poor you," James said sympathetically. "We've got something to cheer you up, though – Moony's a prefect!"

Peter shrugged. "Well, who else was it going to be?" he asked morosely. "You?"

"There is just no pleasing some people," Sirius said. "Come on, let's get on with planning the Sorting Prank."

It was actually quite tame by their standards: they charmed the statues to boo and blow raspberries every time the Hat said 'Slytherin'. It irritated McGonagall no end, which meant that it was still fairly effective, and everyone (except the Slytherins) laughed.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

"New Defence teacher?" Sirius mused as the vague applause for Professor Thewliss died down. "Maybe we'll actually do werewolves before the OWLs." It was a well-known fact (amongst the Marauders, anyway) that their previous teacher, Professor Milligan, had refused point-blank to teach werewolves to a class containing a werewolf. To avoid suspicion, this had extended to the entire fifth year and in turn, all the years below them.

"As if you don't already know everything about them," James teased.

"True, but not everyone does," Sirius countered.

"Will you _shut up_?" Remus hissed at the pair.

"Sorry, Moony," they mumbled.

On Thursday afternoon, Professor Thewliss not only lived up to Sirius' vague expectations, but he approached the subject of part-human 'dark' creatures with a surprising amount of sensitivity. None of the boys doubted for a second that he had been employed for precisely this reason.

"I know that you've done a lot of work on Hinkypunks, Kappas and the like," Professor Thewliss said as soon as he had introduced himself to the class, "but I understand that Professor Milligan has yet to cover what are commonly called part-human creatures."

The class shook their heads. Six of the seven Gryffindors looked expectantly at the new teacher. Remus looked petrified. Fortunately, he was on the front row, and none of his classmates could see him.

"There are a lot of misconceptions about these creatures, which makes it exceedingly difficult to teach you everything about them," Thewliss said diplomatically. "First of all, does anyone know why vampires and werewolves are classed as being part human?"

Lily raised her hand.

"Miss… Sorry, I'm terrible with names."

"Evans," Lily prompted with a little smile. "Lily Evans. They're not really creatures, are they? Just people who have been infected by a cursed bite."

"Very good, Miss Evans," Professor Thewliss said. "Ten points to Gryffindor for being the first person this week to point that out. "You're quite right, of course. Both vampires and werewolves are victims of their sire, generally bitten against their will, and suffer a terrible curse. There are some notable exceptions: the Romaijn family, for instance is well known for having generations of both vampires and werewolves it its family tree."

"They're also known for being as mad as my family," Sirius commented, a little more loudly that he meant to.

Professor Thewliss shrugged. "Mr Black, I presume? Yes, the Romaijns, like so many of the remaining pure-blood families, are noted for having some… unstable members of the family – the price of preserving purity, I suppose. My point is that, apart from a few notable exceptions, vampires and werewolves have no choice in the matter of their curse. We'll look at vampires, and the Romaijn dynasty another time: today I want to concentrate on werewolves.

"Now werewolves have a truly unfortunate lot in life. Unlike their vampire cousins, when a werewolf transforms, he or she has absolutely no control over their actions, and are compelled to hunt. Some of those afflicted go to great lengths to avoid hurting anyone, including confinement in a secure place. Some even resort to chaining themselves up before they transform. Unfortunately, the wolf itself tends to take exception to being deprived of its prey and attacks the only human it can find – itself. Thus, werewolves have two choices – confinement, during which they attack themselves repeatedly, or freedom, where they attack others."

"It must take a very strong person to take the first option," Lily said in a shaky voice.

Professor Thewliss nodded his agreement. "Of course it does. It won't surprise you to find that most werewolves take the second choice, simply because they enjoy it, or because they want to avoid the pain. This is where they get their terrible reputation from. But you have to remember that there are those who make the moral choice not to hurt others, and those werewolves don't deserve to be tarred with the same brush."

"That was very enlightening," Lily commented as they left the class after taking copious notes. Even the Marauders had done this willingly – a fact that had shocked the girls. "I'm sure that's not how Professor Milligan would have taught it."

"Probably not how most people would have taught it," Sirius agreed. "I wonder why he decided to take such a… you know… help me out with a word, Moony."

"Liberal? Open-minded?"

"They'll do," Sirius said with a smile. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you; it's about time we had a young professor who's willing to look at new ideas."

Lily gave him a very curious look. "I must say, I'm impressed, Black. I didn't expect that of you at all."

Sirius shrugged. "Well, it's the same old guff as the old spiel about purity of blood, isn't it? Look at you, Evans – you're as Muggle-born as they come, but you're the best witch in the year, and Moony here is half-blood, but is there anyone who gets better marks than him?"

Lily turned a charming shade of pink, and Remus was not all that far behind her.

"I have a motto: if my parents told me something, I should believe the opposite," Sirius said. "My mother would have an aneurysm if she heard the lesson we'd just had. Maybe I should write and tell her?"

"Don't," Peter begged. "She'll have you moved to Durmstrang."

"Good point, Pete," Sirius said, then sighed. "Bet Regulus has already told her. I think he had Defence earlier in the week."

Regulus had indeed already informed Mrs Black about the content of the Defence lesson (although his information came from Severus Snape – Thewliss was only teaching werewolves to the fifth years, apparently), and Sirius received a sharp letter demanding to know why he had not also informed his mother about this 'dangerous rogue'. The letter quickly found its way to the Gryffindor fireplace.

"This requires some revenge," James said cheerfully, watching the parchment curl up in the heat.

"I got some great inspiration over the holidays, whilst I was visiting my cousin," Sirius agreed. "I just need to find out how we can do it to the entire house."

"Tell," Peter demanded.

"Well, you know that Uncle Alphard is a Metamorphmagus, don't you?"

James nodded. He had actually met Sirius' favourite uncle, who was considered a bit of a rogue by the rest of the family for not having married, and for sometimes turning his hair bright blue for the sake of it.

"He's the cool one, right?" Peter checked. "The one you actually like?"

"Right. Now, 'Dromeda's little girl is one too, only she likes to turn her hair bright pink."

James sniggered. Remus sighed heavily.

"Should we be discussing this in front of a prefect?" James asked in all seriousness.

"Give over," Remus protested. "It had to be one of us."

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

"Guess what," Peter gasped, clutching his chest as he tried to catch his breath.

"You need to get in shape?" James suggested, not looking up from his Transfiguration book.

"Funny," Peter shot back. "I just found another secret passage. I cast that colour-change spell right outside the Slytherin common room, but Filch heard them scream and I had to get away quickly. I just fell into this passage – I'm not sure Filch even knew it was there."

"We really should map out the passages, just in case," Remus said thoughtfully. "Just in case we need to get away from Filch, that is. Not that I am advocating your playing pranks on the Slytherins, that is: as a prefect, I cannot have anything to do with that kind of thing."

James and Sirius smirked at the mention of Remus' elevated status. They hadn't yet stopped teasing him about it.

"But I must do my best to keep you out of trouble," Remus continued, surprising them. "Whilst I clearly can't stop you winding the Slytherins up, I can keep you from getting caught."

"Remus, that's brilliant," Peter said with a bright smile. "With you still on our side, we can't possibly get into any more trouble."

"I'm not Head Boy or anything," Remus said quickly. "You can still get into plenty of trouble _if you get caught_."

The Marauders had learned early on that being early to breakfast the morning after a prank was a sure-fire way to make McGonagall suspect them. Therefore, they waited until a reasonable time before giving in to their curiosity, and what a treat it was - every single Slytherin had been affected by Peter's spell and all of the boys were sporting baby pink hair, whereas the girls had blue rinses. The other three houses were all sniggering into their breakfasts. Sirius could swear that Dumbledore winked at the quartet as they passed in front of the head table.

"Look, Snivelly's tried to reverse it," James said gleefully, observing the brighter hue of their nemesis' hair.

"So has Malfoy," Sirius sniggered. "That's the colour of Nymphadora's hair. The idiot tried it more than once!"

"Andromeda needs to be arrested for child cruelty, giving a kid a name like that," James commented. "What is it with Blacks and terrible names?"

"What's wrong with my name?" Sirius demanded.

"Siriusly?"

"Don't start that again, Jimmy," Sirius said.

"You asked," James said in his defence. "Hey, even Sluggy got got."

Professor Slughorn had just entered sporting a violet moustache. He actually appeared to be pulling the look off. They weren't sure whether to be upset by that or not.

Frank Longbottom, the seventh-year Gryffindor prefect, wolf-whistled. "Nice, Professor."

Slughorn nodded and twirled one end of his enormous moustache. "Yes, I rather like it," he said jovially. "I think I'll keep it, if I can find out how the mischievous little so-and-sos did it in the first place."

It took three days for the spell to wear off and the Slytherins to start looking like their normal selves again, during which time they caused new hilarity as their natural colouring returned in patches, resulting in two-tone colouring for a further two days. During the whole week, the Slytherins barely showed their faces outside of their common room, and the rest of the populous enjoyed a break from their bullying. Sometime during the week, Professor Slughorn received an anonymous letter, containing nothing but a spell.


	4. Chapter 4: Padfoot and Prongs

_A/N: Apologies to anyone who read Chapter Three in the first half-hour of it being up (according to the Reader Stats, no-one did, but they say they're not 100 reliable, so why take the risk?) – it was re-posted quite quickly with a tiny little bit added in to the Defence lesson. It was always supposed to be there – I just forgot to add it before I posted. The problem with itchy fingers, I suppose. I just like seeing it out there and knowing that people are reading it (even if you aren't reviewing – I don't always, either). Also apologies to anyone who tried to access Chapter 3 in the brief period it ceased to exist, whilst I was uploading the addition._

_Oh, and before anyone mentions it, yes, I know the Romaijns sound a bit like the Corvinus family from 'Underworld'. I swear they existed in my mind before I saw either movie._

_The whole reviewing thing I mentioned before? This story is totally un-betaed, so feel free to point out any errors I've made. I'm normally careful (I'm a beta myself), but I'm not perfect! As long as you're not flaming me, I don't mind at all._

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**Chapter 4: …Padfoot and Prongs (A Marauders' Christmas)**

The term passed in a blur of incessant reminders that OWLs were fast approaching and Defence lessons that were pronounced to be 'cool'. The Marauders actually paid attention in them, participated, even. Remus in particular seemed to be enjoying it more than usual, now that the nagging panic over the whole werewolf issue had been resolved in an extremely satisfactory way. He also preferred Professor Thewliss' hands on approach, allowing them to practice spells much more regularly than Professor Milligan had. Christmas seemed to come all too soon, and all four Marauders headed home for the holidays.

"Sirius, you have been fooling around with those Gryffindor friends of yours for long enough," Walburga Black announced once Sirius' trunk was stowed away in his bedroom. "It is bad enough that you have been socialising with a half-blood, but your father has recently learned some disturbing news about that Lupin boy. I can scarcely believe that an intelligent boy like you has shared a room with him for five years and not noticed that something is amiss... Remus Lupin is a werewolf!"

"Yes, Mother, I know," Sirius said calmly, although inside he was panicking for his friend. "As you say, I was bound to notice sooner or later that something wasn't quite right. However, unlike you, I don't care. Remus is a good man, not a monster."

"Sirius, you must stop this at once! The heir to this house cannot be seen cavorting with werewolves and half-bloods!" Walburga cried, getting more and more irate with her insubordinate son.

Sirius, on the other hand, seemed quite relaxed about the whole situation.

"Mother, when will you get it into your thick head that I have no intentions of being the heir you want? There is nothing wrong with half-bloods. Or with Muggle-borns, or werewolves. We are all wizards."

"Enough!'' Walburga screamed. "You are an embarrassment to this house, and it will no longer be tolerated. You _will_ conform. You will not associate with that monster any longer.:"

"Hard luck, Mother," Sirius said, Summoning his trunk from his room (and nearly decapitating Kreacher in the process as the heavy trunk zoomed down the stairs). "I'm leaving. You'll have to make do with Regulus as your precious heir. I do hope that his darling Death Eater friends don't get him killed before he can take up the mantle. And if you want to see a monster, look in the mirror sometime."

James opened the door to find Sirius there, trunk at his feet and a strange look on his Face.

''I've left home,'' he announced. ''Does Aunt Dorea's offer still stand?"

"Of course it does," Dorea Potter said, coming to stand beside her son at the door. Come in, Sirius dear. James, get Sirius' trunk from the step."

Whilst James hauled Sirius' heavy trunk up the stairs to what had long ago become 'his' room, Dorea sat her great-nephew down at the table and made him a sandwich and a cup of tea.

"So what happened?" Dorea asked once James had returned.

"They found out about Remus," Sirius said darkly. You can imagine what my mother thought, especially after I told her that I already knew."

Dorea sighed heavily. "That poor boy puts up with enough already without your mother's interference. Do you know if she intends to take any action? We should probably warn the Lupins if..."

"Mum, we should tell them anyway," James said. Why wait?" He grabbed a handful of Floo powder, threw it into the fireplace and stuck his head into the flames when they turned green.

The next thing Sirius knew, all three Lupins were appearing from the fireplace and he was being chivvied into action by Aunt Dorea to fetch extra chairs.

"But..."

"You live here," Dorea pointed out. "You'll be treated as a son, just as James is. Now, get the chairs."

"Yes, Aunt Dorea," Sirius said with an inexplicable smile.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

Two days after Sirius had arrived on the doorstep the older boy came dancing into James' room, his whole face alive with joy.

"I've done it, Jamie! I've bloody done it!"

"It's taken this long to sink in?" James asked sceptically. "You ran away two days ago."

"Not that, moron," Sirius said, bouncing onto the bed and punching his best mate on the arm, "the transformation. I'm an Animagus!"

That caught James' attention and he put his Transfiguration textbook down. "Really? Wow. Go on then, Mr. Animagus, prove it."

Sirius concentrated, screwing his face up in a way that made James laugh at him, right up until the second his form shifted.

"Bloody hell, Sirius!" James yelled, suddenly thankful for the muffling charm he had cast on his room last night. "You've done it! You're a dog!"

Suddenly, Sirius was lying on the bed again, instead of the huge black dog. "A dog, huh? Better than McGonagall's cat, I reckon; Remus isn't likely to chase me up a tree whenever he sees me."

"The irony," James realised. "Sirius Black, named after the dog star, is a black dog."

"Bit like Remus Lupin, the werewolf," Sirius pointed out. "It's as if our parents are cursing us at birth. Well, I was, with those absolute wankers I have to call a family, but you know what I mean."

"Yeah. 'James Potter' doesn't really lend itself to an animal, does it?"

"Nah, but I'm gonna laugh my arse off if Peter's a rabbit," Sirius said with an evil grin.

"Huh?" James looked confused.

"Peter Rabbit?"

James shook his head.

"Muggle children's story," Sirius explained. "By a bird called Beatrix Potter, now I think about it. Not a relative of yours, is she?"

"Your parents read you Muggle children's stories," James said, disbelief written all over his face.

"Don't be stupid," Sirius said. "I read them myself. They're not bad, as kids' books go - not dumbed down. The first one is the 'Tale of Peter Rabbit'."

"Moony'll eat him," James said, grinning.

Later that week, the two boys headed off into the woods to play a spot of Quidditch when, without warning, James shifted shape.

"Shit, James, give a guy some warning!" Sirius yelled, turning to see his mate's form. "Whoa, prongs alert. You've got some serious antlers there, mate."

James shifted back, grinning wildly. "Prongs? I kind of like that."

Sirius laughed. "It would drive everyone mad, trying to work it out. So, Prongs, how does it feel to be an Animagus?"

"Seriously cool," James said, picking his broom up from where he had dropped it. "But we've got to keep it quiet until Peter can do it too; then we tell Moony."

Sirius pouted. "You've both got cool nicknames. I want one."

"How about Dog-Breath?" James suggested.

"Piss off."

"Well, a dog doesn't really lend itself to anything, except maybe 'Rover', or 'Fido'…" James protested.

"Call me either of those and I will hex you into next century," Sirius warned.

"Well, you came up with 'Prongs', and Peter came up with 'Moony'; maybe we should let Moony come up with yours. I can't think of anything clever, mate. Remus is bound to."

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

The Potters were the best parents ever, Sirius decided after a week (actually, he'd decided that about two seconds after he met them) when they agreed to have Remus and Peter over for New Year and the rest of the holidays.

"So this is your room," Remus asked needlessly, regretting poking his head around the door. Already, the room smelled of stale socks and had Sirius' possessions scattered all over the place.

"Yep, certainly is," Sirius said. "Do you like what I've done with the place?"

"You could do with doing something with the place," Mr Potter called up the stairs. "Taking a torch to it, for instance."

"Aw, Uncle Charlus, it isn't that bad," Sirius complained, with a grin.

"You've been here a week," Remus commented dryly. "How have you made _that_ much… why am I asking that?"

"Because you're Moony the Prefect, and you like neat things."

"James, please let me stay in your room," Remus begged.

James shrugged. "No problem."

At that point, he opened the door, and Remus wondered what on Earth he had let himself in for. He should have known better. He _really_ should have.

"Remus, dear, why don't you take the guest room?" Mrs Potter suggested, coming up the stairs. "I'm sure you'd prefer it. I _did_ ask them both to tidy up, but I should know what to expect by now."

"Thank you, Mrs Potter," Remus said graciously. "That would be great. I'd appreciate it."

James and Sirius pulled faces as she led Remus to the guest room, just a little further along the landing.

In light of certain events, Sirius decided to surrender his room and bunk with James whilst Peter stayed ("You don't snore as much." "Gee, thanks."). They didn't particularly mind, though – it just gave them something else to tease Remus about whilst he was trying to finish off his homework in the evenings. Their days were filled with sledging and throwing snowballs at each other (James and Sirius were bold enough to enchant them, but Remus and Peter weren't, so it wasn't a particularly fair fight) and playing Quidditch. Or, they were trying to play Quidditch – Remus was nowhere to be seen.

"Remus?"

There was no answer, so Peter stuck his head around the door, and froze. "Whoa."

Remus emerged from a side room a moment later, shirtless and rubbing his hair with a fluffy white towel. He had evidently been taking a shower.

"Have you got an en-suite? You jammy begger."

"Yes, and it's clean, unlike the bathroom you lot are using," Remus said dryly. "What do you want, Peter?"

Peter blinked. "Sorry, I've forgotten. Your über-neatness has freaked me out too much. It doesn't even look like there's anyone staying here."

Remus had to agree – apart from the book beside his bed and the closed trunk at the foot, the room was absolutely pristine. The way he liked it.

"Peter…"

"Oh. Quidditch."

Remus groaned.

"James says he'll play with you," Peter said, as if this was a tremendous honour. In fact (as they both knew), it was a tremendous insult and yet, at the same time, a realistic assessment of Remus' ability on a broomstick. He could fly, but he was terrible at catching things at the same time; a point that made him somewhat useless on the Quidditch pitch.

"I'll be right down," Remus said reluctantly. He knew he would never hear the end of it if he didn't play. "I'll just put some clothes on."

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

_Just to let you know, the next update might not be as quick as the last few. I've got myself bogged down a bit, trying to think about The Prank. You will be glad to know, however, that I've been working on the post-Hogwarts stuff a little. November 1981 is going spectacularly well (badly?), if I do say so myself._


	5. Chapter 5: Wormtail

_A/N: So I'm still struggling with The Prank. I've seen it written so many ways that I can't think of anything original. Anyways, I thought I'd let you have this._

_Oh, and according to the Lunar Calendar (kalender - 365 . de / lunar - calendar . php), the full moon was about a week after Remus' 16__th__ birthday, but, y'know, artistic license and all that… (I'm generally a sucker for getting the historical facts right, especially something so easy to find out.)_

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**Chapter 5: '…Wormtail…' or 'The Secret Revealed'**

After Christmas seemed even worse on the OWL front than before, and even Professor Thewliss seemed to have jumped on the 'these are the most important exams you will ever take' bandwagon. His classes were still more fun than the others, the focus seemed to change from general teaching to making sure they would all pass the OWLs. This meant more homework, which in turn meant less time to spend trying to get Peter to manage the Animagus transformation. The youngest Marauder had turned green with envy when the other two had shown him their forms.

They were in the dormitory, waiting for Remus to return from some stupid prefect meeting so that he could help out with (i.e. do) their History of Magic assignments when Sirius suddenly noticed that something was amiss.

"Prongs, where the hell did Peter go?" he asked.

There was a loud squeak from Peter's bed and both boys scurried over to find a fat grey rat running around on the covers.

"Tell me that isn't Peter?" James said, smirking.

"I think it is," Sirius replied with an equivalent smirk.

They jumped back as Peter resumed his human shape. Did you see?" he squeaked. "I did it!"

"Yeah, but mate, you're a rat," Sirius pointed out, sniggering.

"Yeah, but I did it."

"You looked like you had a worm stuck in your arse," James said, almost crying with laughter. "Worm-tail."

Peter scowled. "Well, at least my tackle's all covered and not on show to the entire world," he shot back.

"Ooh, low," Sirius said, clearly trying not to laugh again. "In fact, I'd say that was below the belt."

James doubled over, clutching his sides at this latest addition to his mirth.

"It wasn't that funny, Prongs," Sirius said. "Come on, get a grip. There's nothing wrong with rats, they're very intelligent creatures."

"Thank you," Peter said.

"Wormtail," Sirius added for good measure, because he couldn't stand being too nice to Peter.

"You guys are pricks."

"We got you this far, didn't we?" James asked, sufficiently recovered to protest.

"And now you're taking the piss!" Peter cried. "It isn't as if I get a choice. I was never going to be as cool as you guys."

Sirius shrugged. "Okay, now we can all do it, when do we tell Moony?"

"His birthday's next week," Peter suggested.

"I like it," Sirius said. James nodded his agreement.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

"Moony, Moony, Moony! Wake up!" Sirius cried, leaping onto Remus' bed. It was two nights before the full moon, and Remus was not in the best of moods.

"Come on, Remus," James pleaded, jumping onto the other side of the bed. "You don't want to miss your birthday; we've got a special present for you."

"Go away," Remus muttered, trying to pull the covers over his head, but his friends wouldn't allow him. Sirius decided that a decent poking would raise the werewolf, and proceeded to jab his bony finger into Remus' shoulder repeatedly.

"That's really irritating, you know," Remus complained.

"Well, get up and I'll stop," Sirius said.

Remus decided that, at that point, getting up would be the lesser of two evils (the second being biting Sirius to get rid of him – not a brilliant plan, although the threat would probably do the trick). "Alright, alright, I'm up," he groaned, sitting up and dislodging Sirius.

"Brilliant!"

The other Marauders burst into a rousing chorus of 'Happy Birthday', and by the time they were finished, Remus had to admit that waking up possibly might not have been quite so bad after all.

"So, what's this special present you've got?" he asked.

The trio exchanged grins.

"Well, we've been working on this for a while now," James began.

"Since second year," Sirius added. "Ready, guys? Three, two, one…"

In unison, all three boys disappeared and, in their place, stood a stag, dog and rat.

"What…?" Remus' mind boggled.

James changed back first. "Well, when we found out about your furry little problem, we did a bit of research and found out that Animagi can't be infected by a werewolf bite."

"So we became Animagi," Sirius added. He and Peter were also back in their human forms.

"Now we can keep you company at full moon," Peter said.

Remus was absolutely speechless.

"Now, Moony," James said, sitting beside the young werewolf and putting his arm around him. "We need your help with something; Sirius has been moaning because he's the only one who is without a nickname. He's been calling me 'Prongs' since the first time I changed, and Peter's 'Wormtail'. I came up with that."

"You do surprise me," Remus said, rolling his eyes. "How about… Padfoot?"

James and Peter looked at Remus as if he was mental, but a slow smile spread across Sirius' face. "You mean like the legends? I like it," he declared. "Cheers, Moony. So, what do you think?"

"I can't believe you did all this for me," Remus said, still sounding slightly stunned by it all. "It must be really hard."

"Actually, once you've got it sussed, it's pretty easy," James said, now lounging on his bed. "It was getting it sussed that was the hard part. Well, that and ignoring the urge to eat grass."

The others laughed at him, which James could not allow.

"At least I don't try and lick my balls, Padfoot."

Sirius stopped laughing and threw the closest thing at hand, which happened to be last night's boxers. Peter and Remus just laughed harder as James failed to avoid them and danced around, clawing at his face, after the offending article had fallen to the floor.

"My eyes!" he howled. "My pretty eyes! My face! I'm scarred. Now Evans will never go out with me."

Sirius looked distinctly unimpressed, knowing full well that the show was, for the most part, put on for the others.

"I'm sure that, as a fellow canine, Moony can empathise with the desire to lick certain parts of his anatomy."

Remus choked on his laughter and flushed. "Wha…?"

"Oh, come on, Moony," Sirius wheedled, "when you're a wolf, I mean, not when you're human. You must know what I mean?"

Remus turned a shade of red a Muggle post box would be proud of. "I don't… I don't remember anything at full moon," he insisted, stammering furiously. "You know I don't. Including… that."

Sirius shrugged, taking it in his stride. "Well, we'll find out whether you do or not in a couple of days," he grinned.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

The full moon happened to fall on a Sunday in March, and the Marauders spent the whole weekend plotting what they would do with their new-found abilities.

"We know we have to wait for Madam Pomfrey to leave," James said thoughtfully, "but we could just hide under the cloak, and sneak down right behind her."

"No," Remus said firmly. "You'll have to wait until the moon is up."

"But…"

"You can't come into the Shack until I'm transformed," he stated.

"But you can't hurt us," Peter said.

"Yes, we've established that, which is why I'm even discussing this with you in the first place. You're still not coming down until after I've changed."

"But…"

"Drop it, Wormtail," Sirius said softly, his eyes fixed on Remus. The odd expression on their friend's face told him not to push the matter any further. He didn't understand, but when it came to that particular issue, Remus was still particularly sensitive, and there were things that he did not discuss. This, apparently, was one of them.

Peter immediately fell silent, although they could all see the question still burning in his eyes.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

"Okay, I think it's been long enough," Sirius said impatiently, ten minutes after moonrise. "Peter, can you remember which knot it is?"

Peter deliberately stood on Sirius' foot as they shuffled towards the Whomping Willow. "Of course I do," he said tetchily. "I'm not stupid."

As if to prove his point, Peter transformed, slipped out from under the Invisibility Cloak and ran to the trunk of the willow. He jumped bodily onto the correct knot, freezing the tree.

"Nice one," James said with a grin. He and Sirius ran forwards and slid into the secret passage between the tree roots and followed Wormtail, both boys trying not to hit their heads on the low ceiling. Sirius eventually got fed up and changed form. James didn't have such a luxury, knowing full well that his antlers would get wedged in the tunnel.

Fortunately for James, the passageway widened out as it approached the entrance to the Shack.

"Now, remember what Moony said, Pads," James said imperiously. "You're the difficult one - you'll have to submit to the wolf."

Sirius whined in what James could swear was a sarcastic manner, and he crouched down, laying his head between his front paws.

"Just as long as you do."

There was an ominous growl from inside the shack, and James quickly transformed. Peter squeaked in terror.

James bowed his magnificent head and unlatched the door with his antler. The second it was open, Sirius bounded into the Shrieking Shack, almost bowling over the enormous werewolf that was waiting near the door. What happened next was too quick for James or Peter to make it out properly.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

"Ow! Fuck, James, be careful, will you?"

James gritted his teeth and continued bathing the open wound on Sirius' shoulder.

"If you'd submitted, like he told you to, you would still be in one piece."

"Okay, okay, stop with the whole 'I told you so' routine," Sirius said. "I learned quickly enough, didn't I?"

"Not fast enough, apparently," Remus said from the doorway, where he slouched nonchalantly against the frame.

"Remus!" the two boys cried, identical grins splitting their faces.

"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked.

"Barely a scratch on me," Remus informed them cheerfully as he moved to inspect Sirius' shoulder. "Best transformation I've ever had, I think. Madam Pomfrey can't explain it. I had to tell her I'd been playing Quidditch with you guys beforehand, and I was knackered. You, on the other hand…"

"You warned me," Sirius said with a small sigh. "I deserved it."

"I don't doubt it," Remus said lightly, Summoning a box from his trunk. "You'll notice that I'm not exactly brimming with sympathy here, because I know you too well, and I have no doubt that you _didn't_ submit as I told you to."

Sirius mumbled something to the affirmative.

"You're lucky that I owe you so much that I'm willing to impart some of my vast knowledge of healing werewolf bites," Remus said more gently. "Honestly, I can't thank you guys enough for this." He ignored Sirius' curse as he dropped dittany into the puncture wounds. "You've done so much…"

"Remus, mate, seeing you like this the morning after the full is all we wanted," James assured him. "Trust me, this is enough for us." He clapped Remus on the shoulder, and was alarmed when the werewolf winced in pain.

"Sorry," Remus said, seeing the look of panic on James' face. "There are no wounds, but I'm still sore from the change itself. You don't normally see that."

"In that case, you should be resting," Sirius said. "Let James sort me out."

"Don't be daft," Remus told him. "James doesn't know the first thing about this. No offence."

"None taken," James said readily. "You're right, and we should probably learn, just in case Padfoot decides to challenge the wolf again."

"Hey!"

Remus was talking them through the finer points of cleaning up werewolf bites and what to use to reduce scarring when Peter returned, laden with food and levitating a tray of cream cakes in front of him.

"Moony, you're here," Peter squeaked. "I'm not sure I've got enough for you as well."

The three older Marauders burst out laughing.

"Wormtail, I think you've got enough to feed the whole tower there," James said. "Come on, dish it up."

Peter set the tea tray of cakes down on Remus' trunk and unloaded piles of sandwiches and pumpkin pasties from the magically enlarged picnic basket he carried. The four ravenous boys pounced on the food, stuffing their faces like they hadn't seen food in a week.

"So, anyway, Padfoot," Remus asked lightly, picking the tomatoes out of a ham sandwich. "Do I lick my balls or not?"


	6. Chapter 6: Really?

_A/N: Sooo….. Er, hi… Three years is disgraceful. I'm so sorry. My life went to hell, and I stopped writing. You deserve so much more than eleven hundred words after three years, but I felt I had to post something. Call it incentive to get my arse in gear and do more ;-) You also deserve The Prank, but I seriously can't do it. I just can't. So, here they are, eighteen months older, and the First War has started._

I**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

**Chapter 6: 'Really?'**

Peter and Remus were staying over (as usual) when the Hogwarts letters arrived for their last year. James' was somewhat thicker than the others.

"Quidditch captain," Sirius said knowingly. "Alice Prewitt left this year."

James grinned and tipped the badge into his hand. A stunned silence followed.

"Head boy?" Mrs Potter cried when she saw the badge, having been attracted by the unnatural quietness of the four boys. "Oh, James, I'm so proud of you."

By this point James was shaking his head. "No, no, no, this can't be right."

"Damn right," Sirius agreed. "It's probably in the wrong envelope."

He tore the crumpled envelope from James' grasp and pulled the sheaf of parchment from it. "Well bugger me, it's addressed to you, Jamie. I was sure it was going to be you, Moony."

Remus shrugged. "Of course it wasn't going to be me," he reasoned. "I'm a dark creature, remember?"

"Bollocks."

"Sirius – language!" Mrs Potter exclaimed.

"Well it is," he protested. "If Dumbledore thought that way, you wouldn't even be a prefect. Oh, Merlin, there's two of them now, Pete. We'll never get away with killing Snivelly now."

"I should think not," Mrs Potter said disapprovingly. "I know you boys don't get on, but you shouldn't say things like that, especially with things the way they are."

"Even if the slimy little git is a Death Eater?"

"Sirius Black, you shouldn't accuse anyone of that!" Mrs Potter scolded. "It's a terrible thing to say."

Sirius wisely decided not to push it any more – she looked pretty upset.

Peter grinned suddenly. "Remember what Moony said when he became a prefect?"

"What are you on about, Wormtail?"

"I said that we couldn't get into trouble with a prefect on our side," Peter reminded them, a wicked glint in his small eyes.

Remus groaned – he did remember the conversation in question, and had hoped that none of the others would.

"And you said: 'I'm not Head Boy or anything'. Now James is, so we won't have to spend half our lives in detention any more."

"Perhaps if you boys spent less time getting into trouble, you wouldn't be in detention so much," Mrs Potter pointed out, trying to sound stern.

"Where's the fun in that?" Sirius asked her with a frown. "The way I see it, with this war on we won't have much fun after school, so we should make the most of it whilst we're there."

Mrs Potter shook her head. "Trust you to find a good argument for acting the fool. Just as long as you're not neglecting your studies…"

"Would we?"

"Hmm…"

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

"Remus, where exactly is the Prefects' carriage?" James asked nervously, trying not to be overheard by Peter and Sirius.

Remus sighed. "At the front of the train, James. You know, that one you keep trying to sneak into to see Lily?"

"Ah, right. I just thought that was where she sat."

"Merlin help us all. Come on, I'll show you."

Peter pretended to look insulted and grabbed Sirius' arm. "Come on, Pads. Let's find our own compartment: we're clearly not good enough for the Head Boy."

Sirius adopted a similarly wounded expression. "How true, Wormy. But we don't need them; we can entertain ourselves perfectly well." He stuck his nose in the air and waltzed off down the platform, his trunk floating somewhat haphazardly behind him. It would have been a textbook exit if he hadn't nearly taken out a wide-eyed first-year girl with the trunk.

"Prat!" James yelled at him, grinning.

**.,.,.**

Lily looked up expectantly as Remus opened the door and scowled.

"Potter, the answer is 'no', before you start. I really don't have time for this right now," she said, sounding stressed. "I've got to organise the prefects and the Head Boy hasn't turned up yet. Hello, Remus."

James held out his badge wordlessly. Her green eyes narrowed dangerously.

"What part of 'I don't have time' did you not grasp? I don't have time for your stupid pranks. The train hasn't even left yet."

James shook his head. "It's not a prank. I thought that the other guys had something to do with it when the letter came, but it's really true."

"You're Head Boy?"

"Yes."

"What the hell has Dumbledore being taking?"

"Hey! You don't think I deserve this?"

Lily raised her eyebrows. "I can't imagine why I would think something like that. This is ridiculous – I'm going to see Dumbledore as soon as we get to school."

"Lily, seriously, here's the letter."

She snatched it from his hand. "You've charmed this - it's Remus'."

"It honestly isn't," Remus told her, deciding to intervene on his friend's behalf. "I promise you, Lily, James is Head Boy."

"For God's sake." She sighed in exasperation. "Fine. Just… don't screw this up, Potter. It'll look bad for the whole house."

"I won't," James vowed. "I'm as gobsmacked as you, but I want to succeed at this. I'll make you proud."

Lily actually stopped breathing for a second. James realised that she was resisting the urge to sigh again. "Why do you care so much about what I think?"

"If only I knew the answer to that, Lily," James said. "If only."

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

By the time they reached Hogwarts, Lily was not completely openly hostile towards him. James had done everything she had asked of him, without complaint and only a few thoughtful questions. The surprised glances he was getting now were a vast improvement, all things considered. If only…

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the bright yellow Sorting Hat. James cringed. Could they have done anything more noticeable? That had to be Sirius' work; Peter's spellwork just wasn't up to that kind of thing, not under pressure. With more preparation yes; Peter wasn't too bad with practice, and they often had him perform some of the more complicated spells because they all knew that the teachers considered such things beyond the youngest Marauder. By ensuring the whereabouts of other three could be accounted for, they often got away with pranks just because people underestimated Peter. But that? Not enough prep time. Also, the Sorting Hat: James couldn't fathom for the life of him how Sirius had managed to charm such a powerfully magical object.

McGonagall's frown deepened as the Sorting went on, particularly at the nasty sludge-green the hat turned when announcing a Slytherin. Dumbledore appeared quite taken with the idea of the colour-changing hat. Lily… That was a smile. That was definitely a small smile. Maybe he was safe after all. Maybe she wouldn't kill him for not stopping this. It could have been worse, after all (the year they had taken their inspiration from Peeves' Christmas songs, for instance).

Still, with imminent death averted, James was glad when the last child was Sorted into Ravenclaw and the feast began without further incident.


	7. Chapter 7: Surprises for Prongs

**Chapter 7: 'Surprises for Prongs'**

The seventh-year workload was truly, staggeringly astounding. Two weeks into term, everyone was stressed, sleep-deprived and unpranked. Homework was mounting up, despite their best efforts, and the NEWTs were only eight short months away. Remus had received several hex threats upon pointing this out. All in all, it was not the best start to the term they had ever experienced.

"Why can't You-Know-Who kill me now?" Sirius groaned as he scribbled something out on his Potions essay. Again. He reached listlessly for his copy of 'Advanced Potion Making'.

"Because then you'll never get the chance to pull women using the 'I'm an Auror' line," Remus said testily. "Let's face it; it's the only thing that's going to work in your favour."

"Oi! Harsh!" Sirius said, pained.

"That was uncalled for, Remus," Peter agreed, looking up from his Transfiguration homework.

Remus sighed and scrubbed at his face tiredly. "Sorry, Sirius. I'm just… this Runes translation just doesn't make sense, and…"

"I don't understand how James and Lily are finding the time to do all their homework," Peter said, eyeballing James' traditional, conspicuously empty, spot at their table. "I mean, it's all we seem to do now. I miss pranking."

"We need some fun," Sirius agreed tiredly.

"I have an idea," Remus said suddenly, a wicked grin on his face.

"Oh, thank Merlin!"

"I'll…" Remus checked his watch and his face fell. "It'll have to wait; Prefects' meeting's in five minutes."

"Say 'hi' to Jamie for me," Siruis said, only half-sarcastically. "And ask Evans why you're supposed to slice a Sopophorous bean instead of crushing it."

"A what-now?" Remus said, blankly.

"Never mind. Just remind me to ask her later."

"See you later, guys."

Sirius nodded and returned to his Potions textbook and started flipping through the pages like a man possessed, trying to find the answers. Before long, though, he stopped and tapped a page thoughtfully.

"Wormy, what do you think about this?" he asked innocently. Peter sighed and got up, abandoning his Defence notes. He didn't regret it.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

"I have to admit, you're doing a good job, Potter," Lily said, almost reluctantly, as they sat together after the Prefects' meeting.

"Some people don't seem to think so," James said.

"Oh, ignore them," Lily told him. "They're just sore about Gryffindor having another representative – normally it's a prefect who becomes Head Boy, you know."

"I had noticed over the last six years, yes," James said, somewhat sarcastically. "I still can't believe this. Dumbledore must be going senile to have picked me."

"Perhaps he saw some hidden quality in you," Lily said. "You're actually good at this – maybe the responsibility is good for you. You've grown up a lot since last year; you haven't hexed anyone yet."

"Yeah, and I haven't asked you out once this month, either."

Lily smiled. "It's only the tenth – you've got plenty of time."

James sighed. "What's the point? You always say no, and why wouldn't you?"

"I might not…"

James froze. "What?"

Lily gave him a shy smile. "I might not say no, next time."

"Huh?"

She leaned over and kissed him, very gently.

**.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.**

Remus returned to the common room to find his friends gone. With a sigh, he gathered up his abandoned parchments and headed up to the dormitory. A slight scuffling at the door suggested that Peter had been looking out in his rat form, and had run off to tell Sirius about the impending arrival. This was confirmed when he opened said door to find Sirius happily pouring… something… into James' shampoo bottle and greeting him cheerfully. Peter purposefully ran over Remus' feet on his way out of the dorm; clearly on the lookout for James.

Remus checked the open page of the textbook lying on his bed, and glanced around at the potions ingredients that had not yet been put away, hoping to get a general feel of what modifications had been made.

"Much better than my idea," he said approvingly.

"Glad you like it," Sirius said. "Now, give me a hand tidying up before his Head Boy-ness deigns to favour us with his presence?"

'His Head Boy-ness' appeared nearly half an hour later, to a re-messed-up dormitory (too tidy looked suspicious), looking surprisingly dreamy. He nearly fell over the other Marauders, who were enjoying a brief game of Exploding Snap.

"Prongs?" Peter asked, snatching his hand out of the path of James' foot.

"Hmm?"

"You all right, Jamie?" Sirius asked, frowning at him.

James blinked slowly, a gesture reminiscent more of his animal form than his human one. "Yeah, fine. Why?"

"Did Evans hex you?"

"No," he said. "No, she, uh…"

James disappeared into the bathroom.

"Well, that was vague beyond belief," Peter commented.

"Maybe he's tired," Remus suggested sensibly. "It's late, and we've spent all day working. We should all get some sleep. Maybe the thing about your poppy bean will be obvious in the morning, Pads."

"You are tired, if you can't be bothered to remember the right name for it," Sirius said with great amusement. "I'll talk to Evans in the morning. See if I can't find out what she's done to Prongsie at the same time."

"Might be an idea," Remus agreed as he undressed.

"I haven't seen him like that since she accidentally called him 'James' in fourth year," Peter said thoughtfully.

"Did she call him 'James'?" Sirius asked Remus.

"Several times," Remus confirmed. "She's trying to convey a sense of unity to the other prefects. She did it last week too."

"And he wasn't catatonic then," Sirius observed, watching James collapse inelegantly onto his bed, happily oblivious. "Do you reckon it's a Confundus Charm?"

"It's not exactly Evans' style," Peter said.

"Ask her tomorrow," Remus said, yawning as if to punctuate his point. "Night, chaps."

**.,.,.**

James' mood was significantly less oblivious and he was humming merrily as he entered the bathroom the next morning. Sirius eyeballed him suspiciously.

"She's good," Sirius said to Remus, who looked up from his book, "I'll give her that. Whatever she's done is sticking."

Remus frowned. "I'm not so sure it's a spell," he said. "It's more like…" He trailed off, his eyes widening in horror. "Oh no, we've got to…"

This time, he was interrupted by an anguished howl from the bathroom.

"… stop him," he finished weakly.

The bathroom door flew open to reveal James, dripping behind the towel clasped to his groin.

"Fetching," Sirius said with a smirk.

"Turn it back," James whimpered, tugging on a lock of his long, golden hair.

"Can't," Sirius said, completely unapologetically.

"Moony?"

"I wouldn't know where to start," Remus admitted. "It's a potion; you'd be better off asking…"

"Lily!" James moaned. "She… If…"

"I'll explain it to her," Remus vowed. He grabbed his dressing gown and swished out of the dorm before Sirius or the half-awake Peter could puzzle out this odd turn of behaviour.

James slumped to the floor pitifully. The enchanted carpet, fortunately, funnelled all his excess water back into the bathroom.

"What in the name of Merlin's saggy grey pants just happened?" Peter asked.

"Buggered if I know," Sirius said. "Prongs? Care to explain? We're not quite as quick on the uptake as Moony."

"She'll never speak to me again," James wailed.

"You'll get over it."

"She kissed me."

"She _what_?"

"That would explain the vagueness last night," Peter mused. "And that disgustingly cheerful humming that woke me up. And, er, aren't you over-reacting just a bit, James?"

"She doesn't like the pranking," James groaned.

"Hence Remus," Sirius realised. "Ah well, she'll get over it. You obviously didn't have anything to do with it. And that is definitely your colour."

"Fuck you, Sirius. Just fix it."

Sirius had the good grace to look slightly embarrassed. "I actually don't know how. I made some modifications to the original recipe to make it spell-proof. And, you know, that delightful shade of strawberry blond."


	8. Chapter 8: Another Surprise for Prongs

_OMG, I have no idea what the heck happened here – this chapter has existed on my laptop for almost a year. Somehow it never got uploaded. Blame my screwy life. Yeah, RL got in the way of me writing again. How unusual. Looking at the date the file was created, it __was__ the day before my interview for the Teacher Training course I'm now two weeks off finishing, so fair play? Two relaxing weeks where I know I've already passed, just as long as I don't kill anyone (hey, Science – it's possible). _

_Everything else has had a bit of a tidy-up. I've started using an Android app to get my fanfic fix, and it doesn't like the dividers across the screen. So they've been changed, along with a few typos I spotted. Nothing else - you're safe._

_Anyways... onwards..._

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

**Chapter 8: Another Surprise for Prongs**

Remus arrived back promptly, with Lily in tow. How a human being could possibly look that composed immediately after rolling out of bed, attired as she was in a nightgown, dressing gown and slippers all in shades of pale blue, and her red hair neatly braided, the boys couldn't work out. Unfortunately, she didn't remain composed for long after she saw James.

"Oh! Oh dear." And she promptly hid her mouth behind her hand in a futile attempt to stifle her giggling.

"You see the problem," Remus said, trying valiantly to keep a straight face.

Lily just nodded.

"Suits him, doesn't it?" Sirius asked from where he was reclining on his bed.

"Tell her what you did," James hissed. Peter had managed to get him to his bed, and gotten a clean robe on him to at least hide his modesty, figuring that Lily didn't need to see _that_ so early in the relationship. Particularly since Sirius' potion had been effective enough to ensure that collar and cuffs matched.

Sirius sighed and sat up, gesturing for Lily to join him. "This is the base," he said, handing her his text book, "and then…"

He and Lily conferred whilst Remus decided to get ready for the day. He heard snippets of the conversation, including "for the colour, obviously," and "you know women would pay a fortune for this, don't you?" before deciding to wind James up just a little as he emerged from the bathroom, properly washed and attired.

"Sirius, don't forget about your poppy thing."

Sirius beamed at him. "Thanks, Moony. Lils, my dearest, why does one cut a Sopophorous bean?"

"Seriously?!" James cried. "Not the time, Padfoot."

Sirius arranged his face into his patented 'innocent' expression. "Seriously. They're a bitch to cut."

"I crush them," Lily said. "It's much easier, and you get more juice from them. I've got absolutely no idea why 'Advanced Potion Making' tells us to cut them."

"Okay then, crushing it is. Thanks."

"Back to the task at hand, James," Lily said, turning back to the head boy, "Sirius' potion will repel any further potions to colour your hair, so you'll have to stay blond for a while. Let me see what I can do about the length, though."

She went over to him and twirled her wand over his head in what was obviously a practiced move. Nothing happened. She tried again, with a similar lack of result. She started muttering under her breath as she cast, until eventually she grabbed a lock of hair and yelled "_Diffindo_!"

"Bonus points are in order, Pads," Peter said, impressed that James had any hair left at all, let alone all of it.

"Hmph." Lily said. "Well, at least blond hair and dark eyes is a striking combination." She twirled her wand one last time, instantly drying James' hair, then pulled the bobble from the end of her plait and swiftly pulled his hair into a low ponytail.

"Not bad, actually, Potter," Sirius said. "Not bad at all. You should keep it like that. For the first time in your life, your hair is actually tidy."

James refrained from saying what he wanted to due to Lily's presence, but he glared at Sirius.

"No, he's right," Lily said. "Come and have a look."

She guided him into the bathroom and to the single mirror before she shuddered in distaste at the state of the place.

James surveyed his (smeary) reflection critically, turning his head this way and that. "I… I suppose it's not the end of the world," he admitted finally. "It's not staying, mind you."

"Agreed," she said with a grin. "This is a little too 'Gilderoy Lockhart' for my liking."

James thrust out his chest and started strutting around the bathroom, posing every now and then, and flashing a reasonable imitation of Lockhart's infamous smile. Lily laughed and pressed a kiss to his cheek when he paused with one hand on the sink and the other on his hip, pouting seductively.

"I'll go and get dressed. Meet me in the common room in half an hour, and I'll let you take me to breakfast, Gil."

James froze in place, looking like an idiot as she left.

Sirius poked his head around the door after a minute or so. "I do believe you have a date, Prongs. Shouldn't you get dressed?"

At that, James went into a frenzy, turning the room upside-down in search of his single laundered robe and (gasp) clean underwear. He actually looked respectable by the time he ended up in the common room, without the other Marauders. By the time Lily came down the girls' stairs, he was composed and kissed her hand gallantly before offering her his elbow. She took it just as extravagantly as he offered it and together they waltzed down to breakfast.

.,.,.,.

"A galleon on him fucking up within half an hour," Sirius offered gleefully.

"No takers," Peter said, relaxing back onto his bed.

"Moony?"

"Not a chance," Remus responded, gathering up things for the day. "Where's my Charms essay?"

Sirius shrugged, and started rifling through his things for socks. "Weren't you doing it when we were drawing out the map?"

Remus pulled the sheaves of parchment that comprised their rough notes for their map from their hiding place under his bed (it was tidier than anyone else's), and flipped through them.

"Ah, here it is. Thanks. By the way, as impressive as your hair potion is, do you think you could improve it by making the hair grow if severing charms are used?"

"Ooh! That's good, Moony, that's very good. Do you have a specific victim in mind?"

"No, just a thought to improve the pranking potential."

"We did something similar with the hair dye spell, back in fifth year," Peter mused. "I know potions are different…"

"I'm sure I'll come up with something," Sirius assured them. "I could pop in an Everlasting Elixir if Prongs discovers that blonds really do have more fun, but I thought it was excessive for a prank."

"Would that last when his hair grows out?" Peter asked. He stretched and got up as Sirius's face fell.

"No, probably not. And that would have been so much easier than inventing my own repellent. Shit."

"Never mind. Do you think we've given them enough time? I'm starving."

"God, I hope so," Remus chimed in. "I'm not missing breakfast, even for James."

"Nah, me neither. Let's go." Sirius pointed his wand at his bag, which obediently flew into his hand. Remus also thoughtfully collected James' schoolbag before the three remaining Marauders left.

.,.,.,.

The Great Hall was not silent, but unusually quiet as the Marauders walked in. Most eyes were on the Head Boy and Girl, who were doing their very best to ignore the attention they were getting. Sirius saw James theatrically smooth his hair in an effort to pretend to Lily that it was the new do that was the cause of the staring. Lily was a bright girl, though; Sirius knew she wouldn't fall for that, but she seemed to appreciate the effort, given the smile she was currently wearing. Remus made them sit slightly further down the table than normal, with the seventh-year girls.

"What the hell have you done to her?" Von demanded of them quietly.

"Nothing, I swear," Sirius said. "_She_ asked _him_. After she was done laughing at his hair."

"Really?" she said, sceptically.

"Really," Remus confirmed. Peter nodded.

"Is this going to shut him up, or will he be worse than ever?"

The three Marauders exchanged glances, pondering.

"Jury's out," Remus concluded.


	9. Chapter 9: A Surprise for Lily

**Chapter 9: A surprise for Lily**

James was quite shockingly grown-up about the flourishing relationship, now that it actually existed. No-one quite knew how that had happened – James Potter had never been grown up about anything in his life before, and yet here he was, in a flourishing relationship, succeeding. He was polite and courteous to Lily in class; he never favoured her in prefects' meetings; he produced gifts seemingly at random. They snogged only when they were absolutely alone. Okay, they were a bit couple-y, but nothing overt, which was a relief for every single Gryffindor (except that Siobhan claimed to miss their fighting). For her part, Lily never asked how James got Honeyduke's chocolates when she was feeling down, nor where the flowers had come from just randomly one day, about a week after their breakfast together. She rarely asked about anything, reasoning that she probably _really_ didn't want to know. Which is why it came as a shock when she asked the most fundamental question of all (to the Marauders, at least).

"James, what is it with your nicknames?" Lily asked as the couple relaxed one evening in the almost-deserted common room. "I get 'Moony', but…"

"What?"

"Oh please, James; I've known that Remus is a werewolf since first year."

"You were quicker than they were then," Remus commented dryly from the other side of the room. The only other occupier that evening sat across a chessboard from him, studying his available moves carefully. Sirius was actually rather good at chess, despite the game's reputation of being a game for geeks.

"It took them until Easter of second year," Remus continued.

"Girls are better at spotting these kinds of things," Lily said wisely. "After all, our lives are tied to the moon, too."

Remus looked up sharply, saw Lily's raised eyebrow and smiled. "Yes, I suppose they are. I never thought of it like that."

"We did," Sirius said, watching his knight beat up one of Remus' bishops. "We always called it your 'time of the month', Moony. He even gets PMT, Evans, did you notice?"

Lily nodded, flashing an apologetic, sympathetic glance at Remus.

"Why didn't you say something, Lily?" Remus asked, purposefully ignoring Sirius' PMT comment.

Lily shrugged. "You would have told me yourself if you wanted me to know, or if you had wanted to talk about it."

"Lily, I'm male; what makes you think I would ever do something that sensible? Let's face it, I didn't even tell these guys - _they_ confronted _me_."

"Well, it's out in the open now," Lily said diplomatically. "What about the other names?"

"Go ahead if you want, Prongs," Sirius said. "Evans won't tell anyone."

James squeezed Lily gently. "We're Animagi," he confessed. "We did it for Moony."

Lily's eyes were as wide as saucers. "But... You have to register, and McGonagall would know, and she doesn't, because she wouldn't tell you off in Transfiguration for messing around if she knew you'd..."

"Breathe, Lil," James said gently. "We're not registered, and we know it's illegal. We couldn't risk the teachers finding out what we were doing."

"But... It was your idea, wasn't it, Black? It's too researched to be James or Peter, and too illegal to be Remus."

"Hey!" James objected.

"Am I wrong?"

"Actually, I'd like to know myself," Remus said. "You've never told me."

"You're far too intelligent for your own good, Evans," Sirius grumbled.

Lily looked just a little smug for a moment, just before she came to a realisation. "Oh, 'Prongs'! You're a stag, aren't you? Like your Patronus."

James nodded. "We'll show you later, when Pete's back."

"Are you a real padfoot then?"

Sirius grinned. "That would be something, wouldn't it? I'm just a black dog."

"And Peter is a rat," Remus said.

"And dare I ask who bestowed the name of 'Wormtail' on him?"

"I think you already know," Remus told her.

Lily sighed. "You're cruel to him, you know," she said to her boyfriend. "Poor Peter always gets the short end of the stick with you lot."

"It just stuck," James said in protest. "I didn't actually say 'Oh, I know, why don't we call Peter 'Wormtail'.' In fact, I think Pads was the first person to use it as a name."

"I… Okay, so maybe I was," Sirius said. He turned himself into the dog, just to distract attention away from the conversation, and bounded over to Lily, who giggled.

"It does suit you," she said, admiring his form.

Sirius laid his head in Lily's lap and looked up at her with big, hopeful eyes.

"He likes having his ears scratched," James said. "Don't ask."

Lily obliged somewhat hesitantly. "This is surreal, you know."

"You'll get used to it," James assured her. "It's just part of the weirdness that is Padfoot."

"You could stop if it's that weird," Sirius said, smirking up at her. He had changed form without anyone noticing. He still had his head in Lily's lap – a position that had seemed quite innocent for a dog was downright indecent now that he was a young man again. Lily shoved him away, scowling.

"Pull something like that again, and I'll make sure someone at the Ministry finds out," she threatened, only half-seriously.


	10. Chapter 10: Surprises aren't always good

**Chapter 10: Surprises aren't always good**

Lily was quickly accepted as an auxiliary Marauder after that. Siobhan never quite understood what had changed so much between them, but she at least refrained from being openly hostile towards the boys; almost to the point at which she could see the funny side of their pranks. Almost. Lily, on the other hand, made herself an accessory when she provided James with a much-needed alibi when Madam Hooch stormed into the Gryffindor common room on the warpath, insisting that he had pinched another Snitch.

"But," she said with a puzzled frown, "James has been in here with me all evening." The couple were snuggled up on the couch, lazily directing a chess battle against Sirius.

The flying coach deflated almost instantaneously. "Really?"

Lily nodded, and James followed suit quickly, pulling Lily closer to his side.

"Well, I suppose I can trust you, Miss Evans." With that, Madam Hooch departed, trying desperately to think of another culprit.

James pressed a kiss to the top of Lily's head. "Thank you."

"What do you want a Snitch for anyway?" she asked him, relaxing back into his embrace. "You're a Chaser."

"Don't tell Moony, but when he's wolfy he likes to chase it. And I only ever nick the used ones: it's not like they can be used again for games."

Lily giggled, then stopped abruptly. "I don't want to know how you release it, do I?"

"Probably not, no," James agreed.

Professor McGonagall came in about half an hour later, a serious expression on her face.

"Mr Potter, would you come to my office, please?"

"It wasn't me, Professor," James protested.

"Please, James," McGonagall said, her voice cracking slightly. "Sirius, you too, please."

"What's happened?" James asked, extracting himself from Lily. Sirius looked pale as he followed suit.

"My office, please."

.,.,.,.

McGonagall appeared much later, without the boys. Remus had returned, and he and Lily were waiting up.

"It's bad, isn't it?" Lily asked fearfully.

Their head of house sat in the armchair opposite. "I'm afraid so. James' parents were taken to St. Mungo's earlier today. They are both extremely ill and the outlook is not good."

Lily clutched Remus' hand tightly.

"James and Sirius have safely Apparated to London, and may be there for some time."

"Of course," Remus said.

.,.,.,.

Remus and Lily were excused from their lessons on Friday afternoon (Peter was failing too badly to be allowed to miss his classes), and they Apparated to London. Remus tried hard to suppress the shudder of revulsion he felt upon entering the hospital, for Lily's sake. She wasn't fooled, and took his hand. He guided the young witch through long-familiar corridors to an unfamiliar ward. He squeezed her hand reassuringly as they pushed opened the doors.

James looked up at the sudden noise: he was unshaven and his eyes were sunken and haunted, and yet he stood to greet the pair. Lily flew into his arms and he clung desperately to her. This gave Remus a chance to assess both elder Potters, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully, and Sirius, who looked worse than James. Sirius had _chosen_ these people as his family, his parents, and now they were leaving him. Remus grabbed both of Sirius' hands and pulled him to his feet before the older boy even realised what was happening.

"Come on, let's get a coffee," Remus suggested, leading his friend towards the door.

"But…"

"Go," James said, lifting his head from Lily's shoulder. "We'll let you know if anything changes."

The pair spent a sleepless night in a nearby B&B, before returning to the hospital early the next morning with some toast that Lily magically kept hot and crisp in her bag. James and Sirius took a slice each to be polite, but didn't actually eat.

Dorea passed away that afternoon, and Charlus followed just twenty-two minutes later. Sirius sobbed into Remus' shoulder, clinging on blindly. James went catatonic and it took a lot of cajoling from Lily to get him to move from their bedsides.

Professor McGonagall joined them about an hour later, by which time James was staring at a cold cup of tea and Sirius had cried himself to sleep on Remus' shoulder, effectively immobilising the werewolf.

"There are arrangements that need to be made," she said, addressing James but knowing that Remus and Lily were the only ones taking it in. "I will be here for as long as you need me."

"Thank you, Professor," Lily said, interlocking her fingers with James'. "We appreciate it, don't we, James?"

He blinked in response.

"Now," McGonagall said briskly, "I feel sure that Walburga Black will want her aunt in their private plot."

Sirius' head shot up. "No!" he said vehemently. "That cow isn't touching Aunt Dorea."

This seemed to wake James up a little too. "They'll be together, at Godric's Hollow."

McGonagall gave a sharp nod. "Quite right. I will do what I can to deflect her."

Remus and Lily Apparated their respective distraught wizards back to Godric's Hollow late in the evening, accompanied by Professor McGonagall. Remus left the trio in the kitchen while he escorted McGonagall upstairs and settled her into the guest bedroom that was normally his.

"I'll organise some breakfast for tomorrow," he promised. "I'm sorry I don't have anything to offer you now."

"That's quite all right, Remus," she said graciously. "I don't expect you to look after me."

"The Potters were always good to me," he said. "I want to help in any way I can and, at the moment, that means practical things like food and sleep.

She awarded him a rare smile. "Of course."

"Sleep well, Professor."

By the time Remus returned to the kitchen, Lily had brewed more tea and was busily clearing the fridge of spoiled meat and vegetables. Even magic could only keep food fresh for so long. Sirius was hugging his favourite mug, and James was crying steadily into his. Better than catatonia, Remus surmised.

"I won't be long," he said, grabbing the stash of emergency Muggle money beside the door.

"We need milk," Sirius said dully.

Remus nodded and gave Lily an apologetic glance before heading out to the corner shop. It was run by a local Muggle family, but they were used to dealing with the relatively large wizarding population of the village and therefore didn't bat an eyelid at his robes. He picked up bread, bacon and eggs in addition to milk, and returned as quickly as he could.

Lily looked extremely grateful as he unpacked the groceries, and crossed the items off a list she had compiled while he was away. He glanced at it: it was sensible things that would do for meals for a few days.

He pointed Lily towards James' room, and then steered Sirius to his. Dorea had obviously been in there since summer; it was tidier than normal and the overriding smell was not used socks and dirty Quidditch robes.

Sirius stood, blankly, apparently having forgotten what he was supposed to do. Remus unfastened his robes and slid them from his shoulders, then stripped his shoes and socks before turning down the bed and nudging his friend towards it. Sirius obediently lay down, and Remus pulled the covers over him. It occurred to him that this was a complete reversal of roles: normally Sirius took care of him after the full moon, and he was now taking care of Sirius.

He turned to the door, and was stopped by a small voice.

"Don't leave."

Remus didn't hesitate, kicking off his shoes, shucking his robes and climbing in beside his friend. Again, this was normally Sirius' role; Remus had woken up in Sirius' arms on more than one occasion recently following nightmares.

"This was not how I pictured the first time I undressed you," Lily said gently to James as she undid his robes.

This earned her an odd sort of look; faintly amused and hopeful beneath the soul-crushing sadness.

"Not really how I imagined it, either," he said. "There was supposed to be roses and candles and everything."

A wistful smile lit Lily's tired eyes and she stretched up on her tiptoes to kiss him gently. James pulled her close, desperately needing to be close to her.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Sirius loved waking up with another person beside him, and he snuggled into Remus happily for a blissful few moments before reality crashed down around his ears and he remembered why Remus was there in the first place. Remus' arms tightened around him, and the werewolf stroked his hair, surprisingly soothingly.

"We'll get through this," Remus said gently.

.,.,.,.

Lily woke up to find that her hair was growing damp. James was crying as he held her.

"It wasn't that bad," she said.

He snorted.

"Seriously, you could give a girl a complex."

He hugged her tightly. "I am so glad you're here. I just wish they'd got to meet you."

She relaxed back into his embrace. This was better, this was progress. He was awake and coherent and… kissing her neck. Oh, that was nice…

.,.,.,.

Remus extricated himself from Sirius' octopus-like spooning technique, grabbed his robes from the floor and hurried downstairs. Professor McGonagall was sat at the kitchen table, reading the Daily Prophet, with a cup of freshly-brewed tea at her elbow. The delivery owl was on the table, feasting from an almost-empty plate and a frying pan sat on the hob, filled with crisp bacon. Remus suspected a warming charm was keeping it hot as he rescued a couple of rashers and folded them into a sandwich.

With a flick of his wand, he set a second pan going, this one for scrambled eggs.

"Ah, good morning Remus," McGonagall said, looking up from the paper. She frowned just a smidge as she saw his attire, but said nothing. It was only then that Remus realised he had picked up Sirius' robe by accident.

"Good morning, Professor, did you find everything?" He busied himself with organising toast so that she wouldn't see his blush.

"Yes, thank you. I shall be returning to school this morning in order to sort out my cover work, and I will return tomorrow morning in order to assist with the funeral arrangements."

"I'd appreciate that, Professor," James said as he appeared, hand-in-hand with Lily. "I know there's a lot to do, and I don't think any of us know enough to do it alone."

She stood, crossed the room and laid an almost maternal hand on James' shoulder. "You will not be alone in this, James. You have some wonderful friends at your side, and help will always be available at Hogwarts. All you have to do is ask."

Tears sprang to James' eyes as her kindness overwhelmed his fragile hold on his emotions, so Lily spoke for him. "Thank you, Professor. We'll have a think today, so that we can try and arrange everything tomorrow. We don't want to take up too much of your time: you have other responsibilities, after all."

"Professor Flitwick has agreed to watch over the Gryffindors whilst I am away," McGonagall assured them. "I will be here for you as long as you need me to be. However, for today only, I must take my leave."

She Summoned her travelling cloak and swept out the kitchen door, heading for the safe Apparition point, halfway down the garden.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,., .

_Yeah, so this had to happen some time or another. It's been horribly difficult to write. My head doesn't like angst at the moment – the world is much better with fluff and harmless pranks. However, bits of this begged to be written, so here they are, in some framing that might not be quite up to par, but isn't going to get any better._


	11. Chapter 11: McGonagall Ignores Stuff

**Chapter 11: McGonagall Ignores Lots of Things**

_Right, so you have Sanna Black Slytherin to blame... sorry, **thank** for parts of this. I might have had the idea myself, but also I might not have. And the slash definitely doesn't take much squinting any more. It wasn't supposed to happen, but the boys insisted upon it. There's not going to be anything graphic, promise. I'll keep it within the 'T' rating._

_To pre-empt any questions, and explain the chapter title, McGonagall isn't blind – I am positive she knows what James and Lily are getting up to behind closed doors, but she is a guest in James' home, they are outside of school and both of age: she can't really object. Were she to catch them at school, however, I feel it would be a different story._

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,., .,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

The next few days passed in a blur: the quartet spent their time Apparating between funeral directors, florists, the family lawyer and anyone else Professor McGonagall could think of. Remus and Lily sent out notification of the funeral to the list of family and friends James had compiled, and fielded the multitude of post owls bringing messages of condolence. On Tuesday, McGonagall accompanied James and Sirius to the solicitor for the reading of the Will and Lily took the opportunity to go shopping for fresh food. This meant that Remus was alone in the house when Walburga Black's howlers arrived, one addressed to James, the other to Sirius.

The blasted owl was well-trained enough not to just hand his deliveries over to just anyone, forcing Remus to hex the owl in order to get it to leave the envelopes, and he opened them simultaneously as the irate owl flapped off indignantly. As anticipated, the general gist was that, as a Black, Dorea should be buried with the rest of her family, and how dare they interfere with such an ancient tradition. Remus sighed, shook his head at the pair of screaming envelopes and carried on cleaning the bathroom. He was glad he had opened the howlers himself: neither of his friends needed that harridan's insane ranting right now.

.,.,.,.

Peter finally joined them the night before the funeral, bringing chocolate from Honeydukes, éclairs and treacle tart. Professor McGonagall chose not to inquire as to the provenance of any of these items as both James and Sirius tucked into their favourite desserts with something bordering on enthusiasm.

After dinner, Sirius pushed his chair back from the table. "I'm going to stretch my legs," he announced, addressing Remus with a significant look.

The werewolf sighed. "Don't stay out too late," he said. "It's getting cold."

Sirius pressed a completely un-self-conscious kiss to the top of Remus' head. "You worry too much, Moony. I'll be fine."

.,.,.,.

An hour later, Professor McGonagall was helping Lily make hot chocolate when a flash of movement caught her eye through the kitchen window. She peered out and, in the gloom, she could just about make out the outline of a ginormous black dog in the garden. She turned to get Lily's attention, but the fog was gone when she returned her sharp gaze.

"James said that there's a dog in the village that is always getting out," Lily said, concentrating on pouring out the hot chocolate. "It's friendly enough so they don't do anything about it. It's probably after the wild rabbits I saw earlier."

"Yes, that must be it," the Animagus agreed after a momentary hesitation.

Sirius appeared as if on cue, snuffing the air excitedly.

"Ah, ladies, you read my mind! Just what the healer ordered." He grabbed a mug and slurped appreciatively from it. "One of you please marry me? I don't care which of you – I'll let you fight that out between yourselves."

McGonagall stiffened and swept out, a flurry of charmed cups floating behind her.

"I'll take that as a 'no', shall I?" Sirius called innocently after her.

Lily smacked him upside the head.

"I was only joking," he protested, his expression wounded. "You know, trying to bring a bit of light into the bleak darkness that has become our lives."

"She saw you," Lily hissed at him. "You idiot!"

"What?"

"Out there." Lily gestured expansively, and Sirius ducked, worried about being hit again. "She saw you. I had to persuade her it was a loveable local who strays a lot."

Instead of looking worried, he grinned. "Excellent work, Evans. Thank you."

Lily shook her head in exasperation. "You're going to get caught."

"We'll be fine," he told her, more seriously. "We wouldn't do that to Moony – he needs us too much."

"Yeah, about that," Lily said, leaning back against the worktop and clutching her own mug. "What's going on there?"

He looked genuinely confused. "Where?"

"Between you and Remus." Lily's eyes were sparkling, but there was also something just a little bit dark there, something Sirius couldn't quite put his finger on.

He thought about giving her a flippant answer, but that darkness made him reconsider, made him want to be honest with her.

"It's probably not what you think," he said slowly. "But I don't know exactly what it is. It started out with just chasing away nightmares, having someone to hold on to, but then…" He sighed. "A couple of nights ago it was a bit of a snog, and… actually it was a hell of a snog, best I've ever had."

"Do you love him?" she asked bluntly, a frown creasing her forehead.

He shrugged. "I don't know. I love James: he's my brother. I even kind of love Pete as an annoying little brother, but Remus? He's… It's a bloody shame he's not a bird, really."

"So you're not…?"

"A poof?" Sirius suggested, his eyebrows raised in amusement at Lily's hesitation. "No. I never looked at a bloke like that. Not before him, anyway."

"Just… don't hurt him," she implored him.

He went to her side and hugged her, one-armed. "Don't you worry, Lils," he said, kissing the top of her head in much the same way he had done with Remus earlier. "That's the last thing any of us would ever do. Now, come on – McGonagall's going to think we've eloped."

She giggled.

"And don't think you're getting away without the same speech about Jamie."

She elbowed him in the ribs as they left the kitchen.

.,.,.,.

Remus had a strange look in his eyes as he closed the bedroom door that night.

"I heard you and Lily earlier," he said, his voice low. He advanced on Sirius in what the Animagus would almost describe as a predatory manner.

"Oh." He hadn't really thought about how good Remus' hearing was when they were talking, and clearly neither had Lily.

"I've never looked at anyone that way before," Remus said, still advancing. Sirius took an involuntary step backwards, and found himself against the wall.

"But you… You had to go and become an Animagus, didn't you? Make it so I can't hurt you, so I can't hide behind my furry little problem."

There was mere inches between them now, and Sirius couldn't deny that, despite what he had said to Lily earlier, seeing Remus this aggressive was kind of a turn on. The werewolf's eyes were almost black, and his voice was rough, husky, sexy.

"Why did you have to be so fucking perfect, Sirius Black?"

Suddenly, Remus' mouth was on his, but it wasn't like any kiss he'd ever experienced before. This was more like a battle; a messy clash of lips, teeth and tongues and groping hands and… Moony pulled on his hair, the sharp shock going straight to his groin.

"Like that, do you?" Remus asked, grinning against his mouth, wrapping his fingers more tightly into Sirius' hair.

Sirius could only whimper in response.

.,.,.,.

"So, did you ask him?" James asked Lily as she braided her hair. He preferred it loose, but she complained about the tangles in the morning so he compromised.

"Of course," she replied. "He was honest as well. We had quite a good discussion."

"Are they shagging, then?"

Lily shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "No. According to Sirius, they're just sleeping together – and I mean _sleeping_. And one epic snog a couple of nights ago."

James didn't know whether to be disappointed or not: Sirius and Remus shagging would change the dynamic of their friendship forever, but he knew for a fact that every morning after Sirius had climbed into Remus' bed, both of them sneaked off for suspiciously long showers. He hadn't been at all surprised when they had turned to each other when his parents died, and indeed had been glad they had each other.

"Come to bed, love: it's a long day tomorrow and I for one need my beauty sleep."

"You certainly do, you ugly bastard," Lily replied, fastening the plait off and slipping into bed beside him.


End file.
